tion, and so to adjust the uses of art to life as
to exalt the one, and enrich and refine the other, involved not only the
possession of gifts of a high order, but that training which puts a man
in command of himself and of his materials. Addison was fortunate in
that incomparably important education which assails a child through
every sense, and above all through the imagination--in the atmosphere of
a home, frugal in its service to the body, but prodigal in its ministry
to the spirit. His father was a man of generous culture: an Oxford
scholar, who had stood frankly for the Monarchy and Episcopacy in
Puritan times; a voluminous and agreeable writer; of whom Steele says
that he bred his five children "with all the care imaginable in a
liberal and generous way." From this most influential of schools Addison
passed on to other masters: from the Grammar School at Lichfield, to the
well-known Charter House; and thence to Oxford, where he first entered
Queen's College, and later, became a member of Magdalen, to the beauty
of whose architecture and natural situation the tradition of his walks
and personality adds no small charm. He was a close student, shy in
manner, given to late hours of work. His literary tastes and appetite
were early disclosed, and in his twenty-second year he was already known
in London, had written an 'Account of the Greatest English Poets,' and
had addressed some complimentary verses to Dryden, then the recognized
head of English Letters.

While Addison was hesitating what profession to follow, the leaders of
the political parties were casting about for men of literary power. A
new force had appeared in English politics--the force of public opinion;
and in their experiments to control and direct this novel force,
politicians were eager to secure the aid of men of Letters. The shifting
of power to the House of Commons involved a radical readjustment, not
only of the mechanism of political action, but of the attitude of public
men to the nation. They felt the need of trained and persuasive
interpreters and advocates; of the resources of wit, satire, and humor.
It was this very practical service which literature was in the way of
rendering to political parties, rather than any deep regard for
literature itself, which brought about a brief but brilliant alliance
between groups of men who have not often worked together to mutual
advantage. It must be said, however, that there was among the great Whig
and